One of my favorite quips I see posted regularly on social media websites describes a reaction one can have to something that is offensive — whether in poor taste or is otherwise obnoxious. Pardon my posting this phrase, since it describes something that is not pleasant, but it goes, “I think I just puked a little in one of the corners of my mouth!”

Earlier today I got a message from a self-identified holder of a “PhD” degree who claims to have worked for the nursing home industry for many years. She was attacking this website and me personally (Why is it that ONLY persons who receive a paycheck from the nursing home industry attack my website? Imagine that! Oh wait, some of the strongest defended of this website are persons who currently or previously worked for the nursing home industry. Fascinating!). All of her comments were pathetic, but one was particularly troubling. She claimed that the nursing home industry isn’t paid enough by Medicaid (the government health insurance program that pays for most nursing home care in this country). This totally false claim really did make me want to PUKE “a little in one of the corners of my mouth!” Allow me to set the record straight. Allow me to shed some light on what I call a “double-sided lie” spread by “Ms PhD” and other paid mouthpieces for the obscenely rich for-profit nursing home industry.

When it comes to for-profit nursing homes (and the corporations that own them) they ARE making money and NOT losing money. They ARE making an obscene profit off of Medicaid, Medicare, private pay and all other forms of payment they accept! How do I know they are making money and earning a profit, despite the horribly pathetic level of “care” many for-profit nursing homes provide?

DO THE MATH! It is a matter of public record than many nursing home CEOs have annual salaries and benefits in excess of $1 Million! If they can offer that kind of compensation to even one of their corporate executives, they are making money hand over fist!

Again I say: DO THE MATH! Since it also a matter of public record, you can discover for yourself how many hundreds of thousands of dollars these corporations are donating to state and federal politicians year after year! You should also factor in the salaries and benefits of their “corporate whores” (Sorry, I meant to type “lobbyists”) who work for them year round to pressure legislators to support their self-centered political agenda!

The nursing home industry earns lots of money. They have obscenely huge profits. This is the absolute truth.

The other side of this truth about the for-profit nursing home industry is that the spending I’ve pointed out indicates a clear pattern of mis-spending of your tax money (and that of their self-pay residents and that of the residents who have private insurance). Too much money is spent on feeding their greed and influence peddling that they can’t afford to adequately care for their residents!

So the real problem is NOT that they aren’t compensated enough, but that they desperately need to have appropriate priorities for how theyspend your/our money! They are totally out-of-control and that’s why we must pro-actively suggest and support legislation that forces them to spend more of their money where it really should be spend that allows for proper resident care. This properly-focused spending begins with spending more money for nursing staff (nurses and CNAs)!

In a nutshell: When the caregiver is “for-profit” the level of care suffers…especially without appropriate government-sanctioned regulation. If ever an industry needed such regulating, it is the nursing home industry!